After a season without NHL hockey, how do you feel?
I really miss the games
1072 votes (9 %)
I miss the games a bit
1529 votes (13 %)
I don't miss the NHL much
2062 votes (17 %)
I don't miss NHL hockey at all
7475 votes (62 %)

By 1926, having increased player salaries to a level that couldn't be matched by other Canadian leagues, the NHL was alone in Stanley Cup competition. The league had also expanded into the United States, and from 1926 to 1931 the league featured 10 teams.

The professional leagues (AHL, IHL, ECHL) are mostly spread out across North America. The AHL Is home to the most Canadian teams of the North American leagues. Of the professional leagues the NHL is the top league with none of the other leagues being close.

There was talk of forming a professional league (WHA) in the absence of the NHL but it fell apart before they could even sign players to contracts.

There are also amateur leagues that played in the different regions of the country (QMJHL, OHL, WHL) which are governed by the CHL and play for a championship each season. The level of play would be comparable to the NCAAs (football, basketball, baseball), but that league is consider amateur.

I knew nothing but peace in Seattle, a non-hockey town. No morons honking their horns at midnight because the Leafs won. No bewildered suburbanites down in the evil city core trying to figure out how to wipe their asses. Most of all, I could pick up a paper and not have some hockey fight picture gracing the cover.